Not Being Fooled by “Sport Specific Training Programs”

It may be a good way of marketing and appealing to certain sports populations but in reality programs that say they are specifically geared towards their sport may not be what good programming is about. Certainly, there are some things in a program that may be appropriate than others but there are a few principles that apply to all sports and even the general clientele (weight loss, strength, etc..) These principles should be the same throughout. What are these principles?

Move Better

Move Stronger

Move Faster

Move Longer

**Big props go to Charlie Weingroff for these terms (not sure but it is where I heard it from first)

We mostly work in the GPP and more advanced would be SPP, but the higher up you go, the more it is the sport preparing you for that type of preparedness

Move Better: this is your assessment. Knowing where to hit first is important and using a tool such as the FMS can help a coach see what needs to improve in order to remove any barriers that will limit the other principles. You cannot just put the pedal to the metal from the get go without knowing where that person is. This is one, in my opinion, why things like P90x or Crossfit style programs can be extremely dangerous (besides other parts of their programs) to 99% of the people using them.

The other principles are pretty self-explanatory with move longer being the conditioning part of the program. The main goal is to understand that this is one main way at which we look at athletes with program design and helping them reach their goals so that they can reach their full-potential without any barriers that they may have

Cheers,

Matt

Sources: SCWebinars.com presenter Charlie Weingroff: Program Thinking: The Design Behind the Program